Barckley Sumner

HAZEL BLEARS will formerly announce that she is a candidate for Labour's
deputy leadership later this month.

Ms Blears, the party chair, is expected to make her candidature official next
Saturday (February 23) in her Salford constituency.

She is considered a Blairite, but has recently tried to distance herself from the
Prime Minister. Over Christmas, she joined a demonstration in her
constituency against cuts planned for her local hospital.

In an already crowded field, Ms Blears' decision to put her name forward is
likely to put pressure on Harriet Harman, the junior constitutional affairs
minister. It is unlikely that all six deputy leadership hopefuls will secure the
44 nominations of MPs needed to stand.
Meanwhile, Peter Hain is attempting to re-energise his campaign.

The Northern Ireland Secretary has written to general secretaries of affiliated
trade unions setting out his credentials as the most union-friendly of the
deputy leadership candidates.
Mr Hain makes several pledges: the 50:50 voting split at the party conference
between unions and constituency delegates should remain, the Warwick
Agreement should be implemented in full and there should be better
enforcement of employment rights.

He also suggests major reforms in the way unions elect their senior officials.
Mr Hain's letter says: "We should consider ending the requirement for a full
postal ballot as the only mechanism for electing trade union executives and
general secretaries, which too often leads to little election activity in the
workplace and an extremely low turnout. Alternative workplace based secret
ballots could help union activity on the ground and be an exciting new
mechanism for recruitment and branch activity."

Although there has been concern among trade unionists about low turnouts
in postal ballots, Mr Hain's proposals will make uneasy reading for some
general secretaries. Billy Hayes of the Communication Workers' Union, Derek
Simpson of Amicus and Tony Woodley of the Transport and General Workers'
Union were all initially elected general secretary against the "machine" in their
unions. Union experts believe that such results would have been "highly
unlikely" under Mr Hain's plans.

Despite Mr Hain's pro-union leanings, he is unlikley to support Labour MP
Paul Farrelly's Private Members Bill on temporary and agency workers, which
has its second reading on March 2. Since 2001, unions have demanded that
the Government implements the European Union directive on temporary
employees, with the aim of reducing the exploitation of thousands of British
workers.

A spokesperson for Mr Hain said: "He is officially neutral at the moment, due
to being in the Cabinet. He is in correspondence with Amicus and has spoken
to Paul Farrelly. He wants to write a letter to general secretaries outlining his
thoughts on this matter."